1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a personal cleansing implement that is used with a low active liquid cleanser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal cleansing products have traditionally been marketed in a variety of forms such as bar soaps, creams, lotions, and gels. These formulations have attempted to satisfy a number of criteria to be acceptable to consumers. These criteria include cleansing effectiveness, skin feel, skin mildness and lather volume. Ideal personal cleansers should gently cleanse the skin or hair, cause little or no irritation, and not leave the skin or hair overly dry after frequent use. Low active cleansing products have been found generally to provide less irritation or damage to the skin or hair but suffer from poor sensory properties and therefore find less use than conventional high active cleansers. Conventional cleansing products have also been combined with various cleansing implements composed of water insoluble substrates to improve convenience to the user.
Washing implement and conventional cleanser combinations are known. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,650,384 (Gordon et al.) issued on Jul. 22, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,586 (Villa et al.) issued on Jun. 29, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,000 (Borcherds et al.) issued Jul. 2, 2002; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,523 (Gnadt et al.) issued on Sep. 29, 1998 all disclose systems for cleansing the skin comprising a hydrophobic diamond-mesh sponge and conventional liquid cleansing and moisturizing compositions with excellent lather in the same washing and rinsing operation. The systems are reported to provide improved lather and overall acceptability for liquid cleansing compositions which may contain moisturizers.
Washing implements that combine water insoluble absorbent substrates and water insoluble scrubbing substrates are known. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,751 (Lemelson) issued on Jan. 4, 1966; U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,928 (Lemelson) issued on Oct. 22, 1965; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0039116 (Woodard et al.) published on Feb. 22, 2007; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0176002 (Siegart) published on Sep. 9, 2004 all disclose such combination implements some of which may be pre-impregnated with a cleansing composition.
Surprisingly, it has been found that a combination cleansing implement that includes specifically defined water insoluble substrates may be used with a low active cleansing composition not generally used for bathing to achieve the benefits of mild cleansing along with excellent sensory properties of copious lather production.